Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=04/02/03

TYPE=U-S EDITORIAL DIGEST

TITLE=WEDNESDAY'S EDITORIALS

NUMBER=6-12890

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: More editorials about the war, and several closely related topics such as questioning the war plan; the rescue of a U-S prisoner of war; and the deaths of Iraqi civilians, fill U-S editorial columns. Other topics include the new and deadly respiratory illness; the conflict in Afghanistan; and repressing dissent in Cuba. Now, here is __________ with a brief sampling in today's U-S Editorial Digest.

TEXT: Despite the often impatient side of Americans, today's Detroit [Michigan] News says as far as the war is concerned: "Following A Patient Approach . May Save Troops. There is no hurry in Iraq; allies should make sure ground forces are adequate before pressing [the] battle." Across the city, The Detroit Free Press adds:

VOICE: . the war in Iraq cannot be said to be going badly. The U-S-led coalition forces have suffered casualties, but that is the terrible cost of. war. They have not sustained anything approaching a battlefield defeat, and the march toward Baghdad has been most seriously slowed [only] by a sandstorm.

TEXT: In Boston, The Globe adds that so far: " . U-S tactics . have been properly molded to try to avoid harming civilians." And Georgia's Augusts Chronicle notes that: "Coalition forces are risking their lives, and sacrificing them in some cases, to save long-suffering Iraqis . And as for second guessing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, The San Francisco Chronicle says such activity ".would be premature."

In West Virginia, there is joy in Charleston's West Virginia Gazette at "unexpected and thrilling" news that Jessica Lynch, a young U-S army prisoner of war from that state has been rescued by U-S commandos.

Secretary of State Colin Powell's trip to Turkey to improve relations there, and discuss the Kurdish issue is also drawing comment. Wisconsin's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes:

VOICE: . [Mr.] Powell is in Turkey with a critical message: The territorial integrity of Iraq needs to be preserved. Sizable numbers of ethnic Kurds live in northern Iraq and in Turkey, and Turkey fears that the . war . could generate moves toward the establishment of an independent Kurdistan in these regions. The Turkish government has reserved the right to intervene in Iraq to prevent such an outcome. . Turkish intervention in [the north] might tempt . Iran, to intervene in southern Iraq, which has a large . Shiite [Muslim] .population [since] Iran is overwhelmingly Shiite.

TEXT: In other developments, the global attack of a new respiratory illness called SARS draws new comment. Washington's Seattle Post-Intelligencer noting the first four suspected cases in greater Seattle, says "Caution, not panic [is in order to deal with] SARS. Just down the coast, California's San Jose Mercury News is less optimistic. The Los Angeles Times adds: "It is hard to imagine that bioterrorism could be countered until the containment of diseases like SARS is mastered."

Several papers, including The [L-A] Times worry that the war in Iraq is obscuring the anti-terror campaign and rebuilding of Afghanistan. San Francisco's Chronicle agrees:

VOICE: With American's' attention riveted on the war in Iraq, fresh trouble brews ... in Afghanistan. ...Operatives of the ousted Taliban, their al-Qaida allies and a rebel warlord are trying to undermine the interim Afghan government... The violence ... creates a poor atmosphere for the process of writing a constitution for Afghanistan. ...Millions of Afghans, including women who were cruelly treated under Taliban rule and are still subject to oppressive tribal law, will lose out if the constitution-writing goes wrong.

TEXT: The harsh crackdown on dissent in Cuba draws the ire of Miami's Herald which says:

VOICE: The international community should press for release of the more than 75 dissidents arrested in the communist regime's latest crackdown. With...summary trials set to [begin] as early as tomorrow, the time to act is now... Their true ''crimes'' are to openly speak the truth about a government built on the lie of a socialist paradise. The truth is that Cuba suffers a totalitarian dictator whose only goal is to hang on to absolute power.

TEXT: That concludes this editorials sampling of Wednesday's U-S press.

NEB/ANG/RAE